On The Study Of Environmental Factors Affecting Stress Reduction For Young Users In Local Small Urban Parks: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

This research aims to provide a structural equation model of the environmental variables that affect young users' daily stress reduction in local small parks. This study is an applied research that employs descriptive correlational methodology. The statistical population consisted of students from Shahid Beheshti University and Shahid Rajaei University using the small local parks in Tehran's distinct 1 and 4, which are the paper's case studies. Negin Park, Golrizan Park, Golestan Yekom Park, and Sha'banloo Park are the small local parks studied in this research. These parks are in the Velenjak neighborhoods in Distinct 1 and the Shian and Lavizan neighborhoods in Distinct 4. In this research, 30 users in the pilot neighborhood completed questionnaires. The Cronbach's alpha value is 0.814, indicating that the questions have suitable reliability. The authors used AMOS software for the structural equation modeling. The results demonstrate that the model fit was acceptable and congruent with the reality of the community. Readability directly and meaningfully affects the sense of belonging. It means that higher readability of the environment leads to a greater sense of belonging. In addition, environmental variety has a direct and significant impact on one's sense of belonging. It indicates that increasing environmental variety leads to a greater sense of belonging. On the other hand, the readability of the local park has a substantial effect on the mediating role of sociability and environmental responsiveness on the experience of security. However, the non-direct connection of variety with a sense of security was not significant. &nbsp

Tracking development assistance for health and for COVID-19: a review of development assistance, government, out-of-pocket, and other private spending on health for 204 countries and territories, 1990-2050

Background The rapid spread of COVID-19 renewed the focus on how health systems across the globe are financed, especially during public health emergencies. Development assistance is an important source of health financing in many low-income countries, yet little is known about how much of this funding was disbursed for COVID-19. We aimed to put development assistance for health for COVID-19 in the context of broader trends in global health financing, and to estimate total health spending from 1995 to 2050 and development assistance for COVID-19 in 2020. Methods We estimated domestic health spending and development assistance for health to generate total health-sector spending estimates for 204 countries and territories. We leveraged data from the WHO Global Health Expenditure Database to produce estimates of domestic health spending. To generate estimates for development assistance for health, we relied on project-level disbursement data from the major international development agencies' online databases and annual financial statements and reports for information on income sources. To adjust our estimates for 2020 to include disbursements related to COVID-19, we extracted project data on commitments and disbursements from a broader set of databases (because not all of the data sources used to estimate the historical series extend to 2020), including the UN Office of Humanitarian Assistance Financial Tracking Service and the International Aid Transparency Initiative. We reported all the historic and future spending estimates in inflation-adjusted 2020 US$, 2020 US$ per capita, purchasing-power parity-adjusted US$per capita, and as a proportion of gross domestic product. We used various models to generate future health spending to 2050. Findings In 2019, health spending globally reached$8. 8 trillion (95% uncertainty interval UI] 8.7-8.8) or $1132 (1119-1143) per person. Spending on health varied within and across income groups and geographical regions. Of this total,$40.4 billion (0.5%, 95% UI 0.5-0.5) was development assistance for health provided to low-income and middle-income countries, which made up 24.6% (UI 24.0-25.1) of total spending in low-income countries. We estimate that $54.8 billion in development assistance for health was disbursed in 2020. Of this,$13.7 billion was targeted toward the COVID-19 health response. $12.3 billion was newly committed and$1.4 billion was repurposed from existing health projects. $3.1 billion (22.4$2.4 billion (17.9%) was for supply chain and logistics. Only $714.4 million (7.7$1519 (1448-1591) per person in 2050, although spending across countries is expected to remain varied. Interpretation Global health spending is expected to continue to grow, but remain unequally distributed between countries. We estimate that development organisations substantially increased the amount of development assistance for health provided in 2020. Continued efforts are needed to raise sufficient resources to mitigate the pandemic for the most vulnerable, and to help curtail the pandemic for all. Copyright (C) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd

The physiological responses and expression patterns of heat induced genes to elevated temperature of marine Chlorella from different latitudes / Bahram Barati

The increased frequency of heat waves due to climate change threatens all organism. Microalgae form the basis of aquatic food webs, and high temperatures significantly impact their adaptation and survival. Algae respond to environmental changes by modulating their photosynthetic rates and biochemical composition, which is in turn regulated by their gene expression. In this study, the effects of elevated temperature on marine Chlorella originating from different latitudes were examined. Strains from the Antarctic, temperate zone, and the tropics were grown at various temperatures, ranging from 4 to 38, 18 to 38, and 28 to 40 °C, respectively. A pulse-amplitude modulated (PAM) fluorometer was used to assess their photosynthetic responses. In addition, the biochemical compositions, including lipid, protein, carbohydrate and fatty acids were profiled to evaluate changes induced by temperature treatments. Increasing the temperature from 35 to 38 °C for both Antarctic and temperate strains and from 38 to 40 °C for the tropical strain resulted in severe inhibition of photosynthesis, which in turn suppressed growth. The temperature causing severe stress for each strain was selected for stress and recovery treatments. At different time points, the expressions of the photosynthetic and fatty acid biosynthesis key genes were analysed during stress and recovery. All the strains demonstrated the ability to recover from different stress levels, however, the tropical strain recovered most rapidly, while the Antarctic strain reported the slowest recovery. The results confirmed that the thermal threshold for the analysed Chlorella strains temperature falls between 38 and 40 °C. The response of studied strains differed from one another. Chlorella-Ant and Chlorella-Trop exhibited photosynthetic genes during stress, revealing their remarkable capability for maintaining photosystem II’s main component (psbC). In Chlorella-Temp, photosynthetic genes were suppressed, while during recovery, it was up-regulated

Insight into the Mechanism of Glycerol Dehydration and Subsequent Pyridine Synthesis

In the present study, glycerol was exploited as the feedstock to synthesize pyridine with ammonia gas as a carrier and reactant through thermal conversion. A density functional theory (DFT) at the M06-2X method was applied to understand the mechanism of glycerol dehydration, the ammonization of oxygenated compounds, and the condensation of imines. The results confirmed that glycerol could be directly converted into pyridine in ammonia atmosphere at 550 degrees C. The overall view of the thermal conversion mechanism of glycerol was compared with the previous experimental data and the proposed mechanisms, which indicated that the neutral glycerol dehydration process should mainly produce acrolein, acetaldehyde, formaldehyde, and acetol. The produced oxygenated compounds (acrolein and acetaldehyde) can react with ammonia to form imine, which would further undergo Michael addition, a Diels-Alder reaction, deammonization, and dehydrogenation to form pyridine. In a catalytic condition, ZSM-5 not only plays a shape-selective effect on the conversion of glycerol to pyridine but also changes the path of the reaction. The structure of ZSM-5 limits the formation of multisubstituted pyridine products, which is beneficial to the formation of pyridine and monosubstituted pyridine. Protonated vinylamine intermediates may be a critical step limiting pyridine yield and selectivity. The kinetic analysis that is based on transition state theory was consistent with product contribution in experiments. The present study confirmed the selectivity and the conversion route of glycerol to pyridine

Gene expression profile of marine Chlorella strains from different latitudes: stress and recovery under elevated temperatures

Global warming, as a consequence of climate change, poses a critical threat to marine life, including algae. Studies on algal response at the molecular level to temperature stress have been significantly improved by advances in omics technologies. Algae are known to employ various strategies in response to heat stress. For example, algae regulate starch synthesis to provide energy for the cell or rebuild the damaged subunits of photosystems to regain photosynthetic activity. The aim of the present study is to examine the expression of selected photosynthesis-related genes of marine Chlorella originating from different latitudes, in response to heat stress and during the recovery period. In this study, marine Chlorella strains from the Antarctic, temperate region, and the tropics were grown at their ambient and stress-inducing temperatures. The maximum quantum efficiency (F v /F m ) photosynthetic parameter was used to assess their stress levels. When subjected to heat stress, the F v /F m began to decline and when it reached ~ 0.2, the cultures were transferred to their respective ambient temperature for recovery. Total RNA was isolated from these cultures at F v /F m ~ 0.4, 0.2, and when it regained 0.4 during recovery. The expression of four genes including psbA, psaB, psbC, and rbcL was analyzed using RT-PCR. The housekeeping gene, histone subunit three (H3) was used for data normalization. Studying the genes involved in the adaptation mechanisms would enhance our knowledge on algal adaptation pathways and pave the way for genetic engineers to develop more tolerant strains

Emerging technologies for biodiesel production: Processes, challenges, and opportunities

Fossil fuel shortages, rising petroleum prices, worldwide demand for renewable energy, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions due to anthropogenic activities are increasing interest in producing alternative biofuels like biodiesel. Biodiesel, a green alternative energy source, can be harvested from a variety of biological sources. Increasing energy security, improving rural development, and the transition to a low-carbon economy are all critical factors for the advancement of biodiesel production. In this sense, the advances, opportunities, and future perspectives in biodiesel production technologies are discussed, while their limitations and challenges are critically explained. The present study focuses on a variety of established catalytic technologies as well as the potential of emerging technologies and their future prospects. The current challenges of conventional technologies (high expenses, sensitivity to the presence of water and FFA percentage, overlap with food consumption, and adverse environmental impacts) prohibit growth in biodiesel production to its full potential. On the other hand, new alternative techniques discussed in this study (enzyme-catalyzed transesterification, whole-cell biocatalysts, magnetic-assisted transesterifications, and plasma-assisted transesterifications) overcome these bottlenecks and introduce opportunities for bulk industrial scale-up and growth in biodiesel usage by lowering the production costs. Moreover, applications of glycerol by-products (such as epichloridrin) along with the glycerol-free method have been discussed for the economical production of biodiesel. These alternative technologies, aside from their impact on the environment and reducing GHG emissions, can be considered the solution to fossil fuel shortages and high demand. To this end, more research on the industrial production scale-up of emerging technologies is essentia

A mechanism study of methylene blue adsorption on seaweed biomass derived carbon: From macroscopic to microscopic scale

9 figures, 4 tables.-- Supplementary material available.Biomass based active adsorbent can be prepared by activation process to adsorb dyes. In this study, using macroalgae as raw material, the biomass based activated carbon material was prepared by NaOH activation method to adsorb methylene blue. The activated adsorbent with high specific surface area (1238.491 m2 g−1) was characterized by BET, XRD, FTIR and XPS. The effects of impregnation ratio, amount of adsorbent, pH and contact time on the adsorption activity of biochar on MB were evaluated. The adsorption kinetics, molecular dynamics and density functional theory were discussed. The maximum MB removal efficiency of SWAC reached 98.56 % at 30 °C and pH = 5 which is due to its large specific surface area and mesoporous slit structure. MD simulation shows that MB molecules were adsorbed on carbon layer through face-to-face stacking. DFT calculation and subsequent electron structure analysis suggested that a synergistic effect of π-π stacking, cation-π interaction, and electrostatic interaction could help stabilize adsorbed MB molecules. And an excellent adsorption capacity SWAC is due to its graphitic N sites for high electronegativity.The authors are grateful to the Qing Lan Project of Jiangsu Province, Science and technology plan of Zhenjiang (CQ2022002) and the high-performance computing platform of Jiangsu University.Peer reviewe

Identification of candida species isolated from vulvovaginal candidiasis patients by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) in yasuj southwestern Iran

Background: Vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC) is a frequent infection in females at the reproductive age. Furthermore, the most common causative agent is Candida albicans yet in the recent years, the incidence of non-albicans species has increased. Objectives: The main aim of this study was the isolation and identification of various Candida species from patients with vulvovaginal candidiasis by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) in Yasuj, Iran. Methods: Three hundred and ten suspected women females vaginitis were sampled and examined. Genomic DNA was extracted from fresh colonies by phenol-chloroform glass bead methods. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification was performed based on the ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacer (rDNA-ITS), and specific electrophoretic patterns of PCR products after digestion with MspI enzyme used for species identification. Results: The cultures were positive for 160 (51.6%) vaginal samples. Candida albicans (86.8%) was the most common species among the isolates, followed by C. glabrata (3.77%) and C. krusei (3%). Multispecies with two Candida were identified in nine patients. Conclusions: Vulvovaginal candidiasis is more prevalent among females in Yasuj and the predominant agent is C. albicans. In addition, correct identification of Candida species could play an important role in management and treatment of VV

Co-pyrolysis characteristics of polysaccharides-cellulose and the co-pyrolyzed compound distributions over two kinds of zeolite catalysts

Co-pyrolysis characteristics of soluble polysaccharides-cellulose were investigated through thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), kinetic analysis, analytical pyrolyser coupled with gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer (Py-GC/MS) and subsequent density functional theory (DFT). Results from TGA and differential thermogravimetric analysis (DTG) analyses indicated that there were synergistic effects in the polysaccharides-cellulose (PS-CE) blends pyrolysis process. Surprisingly in co-pyrolysis process from Py-GC/MS analysis, the furans were suppressed, while the anhydrosugars were increased. The DFT calculation showed that free radicals pyrolyzed from soluble polysaccharides could suppress the ring-opening reaction of D-glucopyranose. The co-pyrolyzed chemical compound distribution over the catalysts (MCM-41, ZSM-5 and their mixtures) was also detected through Py-GC/MS analysis. Both the zeolites showed high selectivity for 5-methyl-2-furaldehyde and 2-furaldehyde. The two kinds of zeolites could induce the generation of furans but suppress the production of anhydrosugars, which was the opposite effect of the co-pyrolysis of PS-CE